1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of computer graphics and, more particularly, to a high performance graphics system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exist high performance graphics systems that perform super-sampling. For every pixel seen on the screen, more than one sample is generated and stored in memory. Prior to display on screen, a set of samples is convolved (or filtered) to produce a single color for a corresponding pixel. Filtering may be performed using a variety of methods, but typically involves generating a weighted average of a set of samples that are within a defined region of sample space called a kernel that corresponds to a pixel location. In high performance graphics systems this process is accomplished with a complicated set of custom chips. Designing and developing a set of these custom chips is expensive and requires significant man-hours. A design that utilizes a set of existing standard graphics boards (without super-sampling or multi-sampling capability) to achieve a high performance graphics system may offer a significant improvement in the development cycle.